Astronomy Tea Talk

Gravitational lensing is an exceptional tool for the study of both distant, lensed galaxies, and the total mass distribution of foreground, lensing galaxies. Furthermore, if the selection function is understood, global cosmological parameters can be constrained on the basis of the statistics of galaxy-galaxy lensing events. Blank-field submillimeter surveys provide an excellent opportunity for galaxy-galaxy lensing studies because a simple flux based selection is highly efficient. I will present results from our study of submillimeter galaxy-galaxy lensing in 95 square degrees of the Herschel HerMES survey, including discussion of the simple selection function, the basic properties of the lensed galaxy candidates, and a statistical model of the lensing rate. I will also show data from our follow-up programs, which confirm the high fidelity of the sample and can be used to study high-redshift star-formation in detail.